Not sure how much I can trust ChatGPT, but frankly I don’t have energy left for a more serious research, so I asked:
You are a historian. What was the demographics of Palestine before 1948?
I got a list of groups, but no numbers, so I asked again:
Can you estimate the fractions of total population these groups made somewhen around 1920?
Now the same, for 1940.
Now the same for 1900.
I mean, I was interested in what happened before Nakba, but didn’t know how far to go in the past. Too much in the past is less relevant. Too little, on the other hand, includes the Zionist immigrants, and I was interested in the people who lived there traditionally.
ChatGPT said that Arab population was roughly 80-95% of population in 1900 and 1920, and 70-80% in 1940. Jewish population was around 5-10% in 1900, 10-15% in 1920, and 20-30% in 1940. Other minorities, such as Druze, Circassians, and Samaritans, were likely less than 1%.
So, if this is correct, the number “1/3 of the total population” already includes the Zionists that immigrated before 1948. The fraction of Jews traditionally living in Palestine is much smaller.
EDIT:
When I asked about today, ChatGPT gave separate statistics for Israel and Palestinian Territories, so I asked again:
Please express this as a fraction these groups have in the territory of Israel and Palestinian Territories together.
Unfortunately, ChatGPT sucks at math (yes, that also makes the previous numbers suspicious), it just couldn’t do the addition properly, so I asked for absolute numbers instead, and got this: in Israel 7 million Jews and 2 million Arabs, in Palestinian Territories 0 Jews and 7 million Arabs (5 million in the West Bank, 2 million in Gaza). So, assuming I am better at math than ChatGPT, it makes 40-45% Jewish population, and 55-60% Arab population in September 2021.
Not sure how much I can trust ChatGPT, but frankly I don’t have energy left for a more serious research, so I asked:
I got a list of groups, but no numbers, so I asked again:
I mean, I was interested in what happened before Nakba, but didn’t know how far to go in the past. Too much in the past is less relevant. Too little, on the other hand, includes the Zionist immigrants, and I was interested in the people who lived there traditionally.
ChatGPT said that Arab population was roughly 80-95% of population in 1900 and 1920, and 70-80% in 1940. Jewish population was around 5-10% in 1900, 10-15% in 1920, and 20-30% in 1940. Other minorities, such as Druze, Circassians, and Samaritans, were likely less than 1%.
So, if this is correct, the number “1/3 of the total population” already includes the Zionists that immigrated before 1948. The fraction of Jews traditionally living in Palestine is much smaller.
EDIT:
When I asked about today, ChatGPT gave separate statistics for Israel and Palestinian Territories, so I asked again:
Unfortunately, ChatGPT sucks at math (yes, that also makes the previous numbers suspicious), it just couldn’t do the addition properly, so I asked for absolute numbers instead, and got this: in Israel 7 million Jews and 2 million Arabs, in Palestinian Territories 0 Jews and 7 million Arabs (5 million in the West Bank, 2 million in Gaza). So, assuming I am better at math than ChatGPT, it makes 40-45% Jewish population, and 55-60% Arab population in September 2021.